The Burundi-born England youth international was one of five Newcastle youngsters loaned to the Scottish Championship outfit in January, but the youngster is yet to make an appearance for the fallen Glasgow giants.

Now the 21-year-old - who has started just 12 games for the Tyneside outfit - has spoken out about the prospects of his parent club in the Barclays Premier League relegation battle, telling Sky Sports: "This might put me in trouble but you look at what happened to Southampton five or six years ago - they went into administration and were relegated to League One in 2009 before successive promotions back up to the Premier League - sometimes as a club you need everything to be reviewed, its foundation and the structure."

Bigirimana's comments show a refreshing maturity in some respects, given he is looking at the long term prospects of a club with a fresh perspective, but he is sure to come under fire from Newcastle fans and management, who are reeling under a barrage of on-pitch and off-pitch blows.

Newcastle are enduring a run of eight successive defeats, with Saturday's 3-0 capitulation at Leicester the latest. The Magpies now stand just two points above the relegation zone with three games remaining and face West Brom in front of a seething and disillusioned St James' Park crowd this weekend.

In qualifying his controversial comments. Bigirimana added: "I don’t want them to go down and get relegated. Nobody wants that to happen but it’s all about the future."

Jon Howe

Jon has just released his second book "The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road". As a freelance writer Jon is also an established contributor of football, lifestyle and general content articles, features and previews for a wide range of websites and magazines.